Library features exhibit on University of Hawai'i Veterans

The UH Mānoa Library invites the community to view the exhibit, University of Hawai‛i Veterans: World War I – Vietnam War, in the Moir Reading Room on the 5th floor of the Hamilton Library Addition. The exhibit was created by Jim Cartwright and Lynn Davis from University Archives and the Special Research Collections. The exhibit will be up thru March 2012. The Moir Reading Room is open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

University of Hawai‛i alumni have served in the United States military in all of the 20th century wars; many lost their lives. This exhibit salutes them and relates some of the stories about these veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Their legacy is documented through letters, journals, posters and photographs.

The University Archives has extensive resources about the University’s history and student life. The largest collection on veterans in the Archives is from World War II. In 1943, the Territory of Hawaii established the Hawaiʻi War Records Depository to preserve materials that documented individuals and organizations in Hawai‛i during World War II. The Japanese American Veterans Collection focuses on the experiences of these veterans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, Hawaiʻi Territorial Guard, Varsity Victory Volunteers, 442nd RCT, 1399th Engineers, and Military Intelligence Service.

The Vietnam War documentation is a recent gift to the Archives of Hawai‛i Artists and Architects from Joseph F. Martin Jr. Following his experience in Vietnam, Martin participated in and documented the anti-war movement on campus in the late 1960's.

A notebook will be at the exhibit for people to write about University Hawaiʻi Veterans from their own experience or from their families. The notebook will help the Library document and pay tribute to its University heroes.